The purpose of this post is to (wait for it…) compare the Garmin
(Essentially, is it worth you paying a bit more in order to get the extra 200?)
So we’ll be looking at (and comparing) things like size, weight, the screen, buttons (buttons!), as well as the software features, both basic and sophisticated, so you can decide which bests suits your road cycling needs (whether that’s your actual ones or your perceived, I’m-on-the-verge-of-turning-professional-at-age-45, needs).
Capiche? Alrighty. On with the show!
(Before that though, I’ve written a more recent post comparing the Edge 830 with the Edge 1030 Plus (as opposed to the
Summary Comparison: Which Should You Buy?
- You should go for the Garmin Edge 1030 if you want a fully-featured bike GPS (including all of Garmin’s latest software upgrades) with proper mapping functionality, all with a nice big touchscreen.
- Or the Garmin Edge 830 if you want the same feature set but in a newer, smaller (and lighter) device with a smaller screen (still touchscreen though). And it’s cheaper.
🦍 Top end bike GPS device
🔍 Large colour touchscreen
📌 Sophisticated navigation features
A powerful bike GPS with full on-board mapping. The touchscreen is responsive and works well, both in the map screen and for moving around the menus. Excellent training and safety features.
Note: links like the ones above are affiliate links – if you click and buy something, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you (my affiliate links policy).
So What Are They?
Every time with you people!?!
The Garmin
The GPS bit means that the device communicates, through the medium of magic air wires, with satellites during the ride such that it knows where you are and can record where you’ve been.
This data is then uploaded to Strava* and you are awarded a KOM of the Mountain Segment. Or something.
(* Other ride recording and sharing apps are available… we just don’t approve of them.)
Age
The 1030 has been around since August 2017, so at the time of writing (March 2021), the model is nearly four years old. Since it was launched, the 1030’s position at the top of the Garmin range has been superseded the
However, for now the 1030 remains a current model. Like all Garmin GPS devices, it has received various firmware updates, fixing bugs (initially) and then, over time, adding new features.
The 830 is newer, having only been launched in April 2019. The previous Edge 820 was launched in July 2016. Based on this, you’d expect the 830 to remain ‘current’ for at least three years (and likely continue to serve all your needs for many years thereafter).
Size and Weight (Weeny)
The 1030 is a larger device than the 830, with a 3.5 inch screen. The 830 has to make do with a 2.6 incher.
Physically, the main difference is length. With both devices approximately the same width and depth, the 1030 is 30mm longer (to accommodate that larger screen dontcha know)
All of this translates into 54g of weight difference (the 1030 obviously being heavier).
It’s for you to decide whether that weight difference is important. 54g is neither here nor there unless you’re a pro rider with sub-5% body fat (it’s less than the weight of a Clif Bar – other energy bars are available…).
Equally, for many, the larger screen ‘real estate’ won’t provide massive benefit. My smallish iPhone 7 (on which I’m drafting this post) has a 4.7in screen, so the 1030 isn’t huge in real terms.
My bike GPS buying history shows I tend to buy smaller devices (Edge 520,
Computing Power
With the launch of the
For most functions (displaying data, recording date, moving through the menus) you won’t notice a difference between the two devices. When it comes to route calculation, whether that’s a route you’ve uploaded from Strava (other – better? – route planning apps are available…) or one you are planning on the device itself, it will be quicker on the 830. End of.
Battery Life
Good news. I can keep this brief. Battery life doesn’t need to impact your buying decision.
Both devices have a claimed ‘up to 20 hours’ battery life.
Which is more than enough to accommodate my 1-3 hour rides…
Connectivity
Another section that doesn’t require many words.
In terms of connectivity – the ability of the device to:
- connect to data sensors on your bike (speed/cadence, power meter) and person (heart rate monitor);
- connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth and to Wi-fi networks;
- find all the requisite satellites it needs to establish your location on this beautiful planet
… the
Historically Garmin used to focus only on data sensors that connected via ANT+ (maybe because it owns the protocol). More recent Garmin devices, including the 1030 and 830, now also connect to Bluetooth Smart sensors.
So that’s all good.
Touchscreen!
Both the 1030 and 830 are touchscreen devices. So you’ll be navigating through the screens, changing settings, selecting routes through the medium of … touching the screen.
No buttons needed (actually not true – both devices have two physical buttons on their bottom edges and one on the side).
Either way, the touchscreen/buttons situation is the same for both units. So not a criteria on which to make a decision between the two.
Mapping and Route Creation
Both the
Unlike, say, the
In other words, you can select an address or a point of interest on 830 or the 1030, and the device itself will calculate a route based on knowing where the roads are and the type of road or cycle path.
If you go off-course, or you want to tack an extra bit onto your ride, the device can be used to re-route on the fly.
The launch of the 830 saw the introduction of ‘popularity routing’. This uses data from all the rides uploaded to Garmin’s Connect ride tracking (and everything else) platform to select roads that are popular with other cyclists (similar to the heatmap feature on Strava). This has since been added to the 1030.
So in terms of mapping functionality, the
Now this is less important if (like me) you still plan to plot routes elsewhere (RideWithGPS, Komoot) and upload or sync them with the GPS device. For these ‘use cases’ you’re not asking the Edge to engage its brain as much.
On the other hand, if you plan to use the device like your car satnav (get in, jam in a postcode (zip code…), set off), then I’m guessing you’ll appreciate the shorter wait times that the faster 830 processor offers.
Features! Features! Features!
With the launch of the 830 in 2019, Garmin introduced a raft of new software features that weren’t on existing models, including the 1030.
However, alluded to above, the 1030 subsequently got a firmware update to add said new features (and like all ‘current’ models, continues to get firmware updates from time to time to fix bugs, tweak stuff – you know, techy things).
This isn’t the post to go into all of these funky software features in detail. I’d say the most interesting ones for enthusiastic (non-pro) road cyclists such as me and thee are:
- ClimbPro: shows how much distance and ascent height you still have to conquer on a climb
- More detailed training status data displays, after you have completed a ride
- More factors (heat, altitude) used to calculate performance and recovery metrics
- Smart nutrition and hydration alerts whilst riding, plus the ability to record nutrition and hydration consumed
- Various mountain bike features (mainly integration with Trailforks): in case you swing both ways when it comes to on- and off-road riding.
And that’s just a small smattering of what’s available on these feature-rich bike computers. Given that they’re all available on both the
Price
In Garmin recommended price terms, the
Right now the difference is £150 in the UK and $200 in the US.
Click here to see the latest price on Amazon:
And £150 / $200 is not a small amount, so definitely a factor in most people’s buying decision between the two.
Which One Would I Buy?
For me this is a bit of a no brainer. I’d choose the 830 over the 1030.
From a technical perspective, for my needs at least, the 830 does everything the 1030 can do. With the extra processing horsepower, it’s faster at doing it.
Whilst I have no legitimate need to be more aero, the smaller size (‘form factor’) suits my secret desire to emulate professional riders (and whilst some of them may use it, I don’t recall seeing a pro’s bike mounted with the Edge 1000 or 1030).
The smaller screen size is fine – if I temporarily need a device with a larger screen, there is a more powerful and flexible one in my jersey pocket.
That said, an awful lot of people do like the larger screen on the
If you’re buying one of these two devices for their smarter, on-device navigation capabilities, there is something to be said for choosing the bigger viewable area, which should make the whole route creation thang a little bit easier.
So, as always, ‘orses for courses. Your mileage may vary. Talk to the hand. Ahem.
Where Can You Purchase The Edge 1030 or Edge 830 ?
If you would like to buy either of the Edge devices mentioned in this post, here are the relevant links to Amazon (note: if you click these links and make a purchase, I earn a commission at no additional cost to you):
🦍 Top end bike GPS device
🔍 Large colour touchscreen
📌 Sophisticated navigation features
A powerful bike GPS with full on-board mapping. The touchscreen is responsive and works well, both in the map screen and for moving around the menus. Excellent training and safety features.
See you in my next post.
What about stability? My experience with the Edge 830 was pretty bad. It was such an unstable mess that I ended up taking it back and got a Wahoo ELEMNT Roam instead. Garmin is pretty hot and miss it seems. Wrote about this very thing on my own blog:
https://velonut.com/blog/wahoo-elemnt-roam-vs-garmin-edge-830-part-deux
It’s a good point Jeff. My hands on experience is limited but I’ve certainly read about the issue. Your post mentions DC Rainmaker – i recall listening to his podcast where he was talking about Garmin essentially using the buying public as beta testers for new products and features (i.e. because they were launching before all the bugs were ironed out) and how it was strange that they didn’t use their legions of fitness enthusiast employees as a testing cohort. My 510 and 520 were both stable – but then neither was bought just after the product was released – and I did actually have to return my ELEMNT Bolt to Wahoo for replacement. That said, I’m still generally liking Wahoo over Garmin these days…
I’ve used an Edge 810 for several years but had become increasingly frustrated by its touch screen idiosyncrasies and my share of failures (only!) on big rides, I thought an upgrade to the 530 would be in order. The beep alert function (Radar warning/timer/drink etc) utterly useless – almost inaudible and the Radar often dropping out for no obvious reason (it’s their own product!) so it quickly went back.
(If the alert function is important to anyone, the 830 may have the same issue as the 530).
I ride a lot on quiet country roads and rely on the Garmin Varia Radar to alert me to vehicles well before I can hear them so when Wahoo recently announced their update to handle Radar, the only question was which model?
I went for the ELEMNT Roam. It took a little getting used to after the 810, but as Jeff says, it just works. Navigation is clearer, screen more readable (and flexible) and my trust now re-assigned – while I have (and trust) the Radar, I’m less likely to go for any other Garmin product again.
I have had an 830 now since it came out. Previously I had an 800 which I’ve had for about 6 years and bought second hand and with which I have never had any issues whatsoever. The 830 has lots of features some of which are great and others not of any interest to me.
What issues have I had?
When I first got it then if I switched it on indoors it would automatically start recording a ride and have me travelling even though I was going nowhere, really frustrating as I would be just trying to set up a screen or something. This seems to have disappeared now.
Second was it was giving me an incredible FTP in 4 figures, I spoke to Garmin and they claimed there was a problem with my Power Meter (Rotor) however whilst I was communicating with Rotor about the issue Garmin issued a new release which just so happened to mention fixing FTP issues! I was disappointed with Garmin trying to blame Rotor for the problem. After the upgrade it still occassionally miscalculated my FTP but again seems to be fixed now.
Third is connection to my phone, an IPhone 5S, old yes but still works, sometimes it connects and sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it uploads the ride at the end and sometimes it doesn’t, I find I have to switch off the Garmin and switch it on again to get it to sync but this doesn’t always happen. These days I rely on my home wifi to upload but even then I have to switch it off and switch it back on again to kickstart its transfer. Also Livetrack doesn’t always start as a result of connectivity issues.
Fourth Incident Detection which in theory is a great idea but I was finding if I braked hard it would start the process of calling my wife if I didn’t stop it within the allowed time. This became really annoying and I switched it off.
Fifth a couple of times I have been unable to get it to start up again if I have stopped on an ride and switched it off. The screen flickers and seems to try to start and then switch off and start again in quick succession.
Sixth when I set the routing on Road and set a destination it can, at times, try to take me down farm tracks which I guess is down to the maps accuracy.
Seventh when I was cycling in Scotland it would create false climbs. Spoke with Garmin about this and they said it would be because an increase in elevation was close to the road. This made sense as it would happen when the road was, for instance, alongside a Loch and there would be almost a cliff at the otherside of the road
I’ve not tried Bike Alarm as I’m not willing to leave an expensive Garmin on my bike that someone could easily steal.
What do I like:
I do like the climb facility as it gives me the knowledge of how steep and how far I have left to climb. A great advantage when a mate things he has you beat and you know you are on a false flat 🙂
The reminders to eat or drink are great as I often forget to do both and when racing end up bonking due to not fuelling well. You can allow it to calculate when to do both or set your own reminders. If I’m out on a training ride I let it calculate but in a race I will set 10 min reminders.
I train using power and workouts and being able to upload a workout and watch that my power is within the workout range visually or have audible warnings on other screens if I am above or below the set power range is great. Also for interval training where I have a set length of time and power range is great with a count down of 5 to either start or finish an interval
I like that I can set it to see my average power for a number of seconds so have it set to show both 3 second power and 30 second power to give me a better view of power, otherwise it would jump about too much.
It’s great for me at the end of a ride to see performance data and how well I’ve fuelled/drunk compared to its predictions and recently in a race using it I didn’t bonk and was really happy with my performance as a result
Weather report is marginally useful but I have just installed the AccuWeather app which in theory gives me minute by minute predictions and I can plan my coffee breaks around the predicted rain etc 🙂
Why did I buy it? My old Garmin was exactly that, old, and I was used to Garmin. Would I buy it again, probably, but not when it first comes out, too many issues but it seems to be settling down although some issues remain that I find ways around and hopefully will improve with releases. Version 5 is just out so hope that is fixing some. Would I recommend it? Not sure, certainly if you use workouts and can create them and upload to the Garmin it is a great tool. And if you like looking at lots of data. But if you don’t have a Power Meter and Heart Rate monitor and are just out riding for fun then there is too much on this that you will never use.
I think l you will find there are some pro teams using the 1030 ( the white surround is a give away) and previously the 1000 too, if you look hard enough if it really matters?
Froome is using Edge 1030 bro..
Hmm, my bad. Perhaps it was the 1030’s sail-like qualities that caught the wind and sent him into that wall…